Monday, April 28, 2014

April 28th

This week...was...well...it ended with me and my companion on the cold tile floor laughing our heads off and crying our eyes out last night after our companionship prayer.

Where to begin.

We spent a bit of time this week in a Catholic church because the Grandma of our great part member family passed away. They called us at 3 in the morning to tell us, the mom was bawling. We couldn´t do anything then, so we went back to sleep and in the morning went over. They told us where the service would be held...two streets outside of our ward limits in a Catholic church! I called President Wright because they asked us if we could go sing some hymns, and the Grandma loved our hymns! He said yes.

Before going over, we went and did some service. Call me Betty Crocker, I learned how to make lasagna from scratch, without a recipe! Mom, I think my new found talent has the potential to replace Stoffer´s. You´ll have to let me know when I make it for you in 8 months. We took the lasagna to the family to eat for lunch. The real story is that our ward mission leader´s wife told us to do hot dogs, because they are fast and easy. We were walking over to the store to get the stuff when our good Utah Mormon sides hit us. Hot dogs aren´t funeral food. There were no honey smoked hams or potatoes in sight, so that is when we invented a lasagna recipe. They loved it and say that it is the best because missionaries made it. How nice.

Then we went to the Catholic church. The extended family was confused, but our part member family introduced us to everyone and told them how we have been sharing with them and that we helped them get through this rough time. That sparked people´s interest, so all day we were answering little questions, meeting a million family members that live in our area, and clarifying our doctrine (misunderstandings that they had).

We saw a woman sweeping the chapel, so we went and asked to help. That gave us the opportunity to talk to even more people, from there church. We didn´t try to ¨Preach¨, but we were able to tell them what we have in common and share our testimonies.

The good that came of it? Well, two days later the family told us that so many people were touched and interested in our church for how we acted. They were surprised that MORMONS would be willing to be in a CATHOLIC church. A lot realized that we aren´t here just to throw people in the baptismal font, but that we really care about the people. I hope and pray that a lot of good seeds were planted. Maybe it will give the next missionaries a chance to share a little more, at least.

We were studying on Friday in the morning and heard ¨ALO!¨ coming from our door. We went and answered. Guess who it was? The Jehovah´s Witness missionaries! My favorites. I felt so bad for the poor 20 year old kid who was there with two elderly man. He had the look of pure fear as he said ¨Oh, you are Mormons! Sorry!¨ hahahahaah. We told him he was fine and then we joked a little bit about how the work was going, if people were home, and what not. I said, ¨Sorry that the only door that answered at this time of day had to be Mormons!¨ We got them laughing and at least knowing that we are nice people.

This week we found a really cool family, the two parents, 3 teenage girls (One is my age), and a 6 year old boy. The mom is awesome. She committed herself to reading the Book of Mormon. It was the easiest lesson I have ever been in. We are going to see what happens, but they are promising. We haven´t met the dad yet, he was working. Just goes to show that even if you are in the streets like a stray dog for a whole day, maybe that ONE door you get into is who needs you the most.

Me and Hermana Burnett had to give talks this last Sunday. I don´t know what came over me...I was so nervous in the morning, but in the actual meeting I was able to say everything without using my papers. The Lord definitely helped on that one. Granted, I did say it all with a gringo accent, I´m sure. Psh. Oh well, at least they understood.

Well, I love you! Family, just 2 more Sundays and we´ll be chatting through Skype! How fantastic.